National / Politics / U.S. News

The Latest: McCarthy: GOP race is between Trump and Rubio

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at a rally Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at a rally Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential race a day before the Republican caucuses in Nevada. South Carolina Democrats vote for their presidential nominee on Saturday (all times local):

12:25 p.m.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says the Republican race is a two-man contest between front-runner Donald Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

The No. 2 Republican in the House said on Monday that Trump’s victory in South Carolina dealt a blow to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s strategy to win the nomination.

McCarthy said the determining contest will be Florida’s GOP contest on March 15, in which the winner takes all of the state’s 99 delegates.

The California congressman says, “If Rubio can’t win Florida, I think it’s pretty difficult” for the Florida senator to continue his campaign.

McCarthy said he could work with Trump, or anyone else who is the GOP presidential nominee.

McCarthy said Trump’s momentum and success reminds him of when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in California and took office in 2011.

Interviewed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” McCarthy said Ohio Gov. John Kasich would be an excellent president. He said that on paper, Kasich “seems like the very best.”

___

2:09 p.m.

John Kasich says he first got elected to the state Senate in part by “women who left their kitchens” to campaign for him.

The Ohio governor and former congressman told about 1,000 people at a town hall in Fairfax, Virginia, that he started campaigning in 1978 with very little support.

“How did I get elected? I didn’t have anybody for me. We just got an army of people and many women who left their kitchens to go out and go door to door and to put yard signs up for me.” He also said that in more homes nowadays, both adults work.

A woman in the audience stood up and said:

“First off, I want to say: Your comment earlier about the women came out of the kitchen to support you? I’ll come to support you but I won’t be coming out of the kitchen.”

Kasich replied: “I gotcha.”

___

11:25 a.m.

Marco Rubio says he’s “anti-prostitution.”

But the Republican presidential contender says he wouldn’t make prostitution a federal crime to stop the practice in Nevada, should he win the presidency.

Rubio made the comments on Monday ahead of a campaign appearance in Elko, Nevada, where prostitution is legal.

He said, “I wish Nevada would make it illegal. But that’s their decision to make. I don’t agree with it.” He added that prostitution “victimizes the people who are participating in it” — the prostitutes themselves.

Rubio says he wants to shrink the federal government, so he wouldn’t want to make prostitution a federal offense.

He said, “I think you can be against something and still say, ‘but I don’t want the federal government involved in federalizing something.'”

___

11:23 a.m.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has won the endorsement of Tom Ridge, a former director of homeland security and Pennsylvania governor.

Ridge had been supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president since early 2015 and joined him on the campaign trail in South Carolina. Bush quit the race Saturday after a disappointing finish in the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

Kasich’s campaign says Ridge is signing on as a national co-chairman.

 

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.